“I surrender control and let my grip relax, my focus drift…and the darkness that hangs behind you, that surrounds your haunted face like a fractured halo, swims forward in my awareness. I see the movement in the overlapping shadows, the devils of memory that dance about you and plague you with whispered cruelties and lullabies of doubt. I see the margin walkers that carry your burdens like pilgrims on dusty, nighttime roads. I see the outliers who guard your dreams in the frayed places on the very edge of remembrance. I see what has shaped you and broken you, what has painted you in the colors of old blood and pain, when I gaze upon you with softer eyes. “Soft Eyes” is a tome of stories, a path between shadows, the moment the sun slips below the horizon, encapsulated in sound.

The album has three songs. “Ornamental Doll” is first. The first chord that comes out of the song hits the listener hard, and angry vocal screams accompany them. There is also a deeply depressive sound running along with the anger and pain. The first three minutes are highly charged, and then the anger moves away, but the reprieve is short lived, and the torment comes roaring back like a freshly opened wound. The screaming is so intense that you almost have to cover your ears. There is finally a wash of the violence towards the end.

“Yearn to Burn Bright” has a darker entrance, almost as if you stumbled upon a hidden door in the dark. You open it and step in, seeing nothing at first. But, as your eyes begin to adjust, the horrors that you see are unimaginable. Deep gutturals and a pounding riff are relentless in their attack on the listener. The riff roars to life with vocal screams that seem to surround the listener. Somber melodies pour from lead breaks, and then all settles, and the door closes once again. You have to wonder if everything that you went through was even real…the magic of the night runs deep.

“Bamber Bridge” closes the album. It’s the name given to an outbreak of racial violence involving American soldiers stationed in the village of Bamber Bridge, in Northern England during the Second World War. The opening of the song seems almost innocuous, but it is also marred with tension. The vocals explode with an aggressive riff that chops off your limbs. The sound is so harrowing, hairs raise all over your body and you turn white with fear. The end of the song is finally a moment of relief due to the pain ending.

“A path between shadows, the moment the sun slips below the horizon” all point to the coming of night. The darkness has been imbued with symbolic significance, representing the unknown, the unconscious mind, and the realm of magic and spirituality. It's a time when boundaries blur, and the ordinary world intersects with the supernatural, sparking feelings of fascination and reverence. If you hop on this bus to explore the album, you may never return.